TechNewsWorld: IBM Builds Traffic Cop for Internet of Things

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IBM Builds Traffic Cop for Internet of Things Apr 30th 2013, 21:38 It's the latest theme to ricochet through the tech industry -- the Internet of Things, where smart, connected machines large and small monitor each other and diagnose themselves. IBM says its MessageSight appliance will capture, analyze and manage the millions of bits of data that will soon flood networks. IBM is also touting a software protocol for the MessageSight as the best way to standardize the foundation for the Internet of Things. IBM on Monday launched MessageSight, an appliance designed to handle machine-to-machine communications of the future. Such communications will develop exponentially to create what's known as the "Internet of Things." In announcing MessageSight, IBM cited a 2010 report from IMS Research that predicted there will be more than 22 billion Web-connected devices by 2020, which will generate more than 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data daily. An IBM spokesperson was not immediately available to comment for this story. More Info on MessageSight MessageSight is an appliance designed to help manage data and communicate with the billions of mobile devices and sensors found in automobiles, traffic management systems, smart buildings and, eventually, household appliances. It uses the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol, which was coinvented by IBM and Cirrus Link Solutions engineers. MessageSight will be able to support 1 million concurrent sensors or smart devices, and will be able to scale up to handle 13 million messages a second. This will enable large volumes of events to be processed in near real time. For example, when a problem develops in an automobile, that information could be sent immediately to a dealer who could then notify the vehicle's owner, IBM said. Most late-model vehicles have such sensors connected to lights on their dashboards which come on when there's a problem, however, so the owner will know at once when a problem occurs. The MessageSight appliance was developed as part of IBM's Smarter Planet initiative, which was launched in 2008 based on the world becoming more instrumented, interconnected and intelligent. Smarter buildings, which have sensors that feed data back to central computers, are part of the Smarter Planet initiative. Other Players IBM isn't the only company with its sights set on the Internet of Things. Cisco estimates what it calls the "Internet of Everything, "will be a US$14.4 trillion business opportunity. Cisco is trying to build that Internet by linking sensors, mobile devices and network infrastructure. There are 92 legacy protocols used in connected devices today, but Cisco expects that eventually the Internet Protocol (IP) will replace most of them. Cisco believes these connected devices must be made programmable and is targeting them with its Cisco Open Network Environment (ONE) portfolio of technologies. "These solutions are being designed to handle the massive amounts of data that will be generated," Jim McGregor, founder and principal analyst at Tirias Research told TechNewsWorld. "Whether third-party services will be required is still open to question, but handling the data can and will be a challenge. We are moving to a connected world, and that's really going to stress out our bandwidth and spectrum-constrained networks." The Internet of Things Consortium Smaller companies are also trying to establish a toehold in the Internet of things. In January, 10 companies set up the Internet of Things Consortium. They include Logitech, Ouya, SmartThings and Ube. Logitech's representative on the consortium "has not been briefed yet on MQTT so he's not ready to provide you with Logitech's perspective," company spokesperson Nancy Morrison told TechNewsWorld. The MQTT Protocol MQTT is an open message protocol for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications that allows the transfer of telemetry data from a variety of devices as messages. Such devices include sensors, actuators, mobile phones, laptops and computers. Facebook Mobile uses MQTT. Many IBM products, including IBM WebSphere MQ, IBM Message Broker and InfoSphere Streams also use MQTT. However, the protocol has yet to be released as a standard. The OASIS open standards group set up a committee earlier this year to work on creating a standard for MQTT. Committee members, who include representatives from Cisco, IBM and other companies, had their first face-to-face meeting in March.

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TechNewsWorld: BlackBerry's Heins Gives Tablets Five Years to Live

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BlackBerry's Heins Gives Tablets Five Years to Live Apr 30th 2013, 21:00 It may seem odd to imagine that tablets could be passe in five years, as BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins has suggested, but five years is a long time in the tech world -- particularly when it comes to mobile tech. On the other hand, it may be that Heins is dismissive toward the category because BlackBerry's own tablet effort, the PlayBook, was such a complete failure. BlackBerry CEO Thorstein Heins made some bold claims in an interview at the Milken Institute conference in Los Angeles on Monday. For one, he predicted a big turnaround for the company, suggesting that BlackBerry could once again become the absolute leader in mobile computing. What raised more eyebrows, though, was Heins' prediction that in five years, tablets might be out. Tablets are not a good business model, he maintained. That comment drew a lot of skepticism -- and some scorn -- but given that the market is contstantly evolving, could Heins be onto something? "Technology moves very quickly and it goes through an arc," said Rhoda Alexander, senior manager for monitors and tablets at IHS iSuppli, "but with that in mind, our forecasts show a large tablet market in five years." BlackBerry's official line is that what its chief said on Monday was nothing new. "The comments that Thorsten made yesterday are in line with previous comments he has made about the future of mobile computing overall, and the possibilities that come with a platform like BlackBerry 10," Public Relations Manager Kim Geiger told TechNewsWorld. "We continue to evaluate our tablet strategy, but we are not making any shifts in that strategy in the short term," she added. "When we do have information about our PlayBook strategy, we will share it. Off the Cuff or Visionary? Of course, Heins has previously suggested that the company wouldn't reenter the market unless there was the potential for success. Whether the tablet form factor is a fixture or a passing fad has little bearing on BlackBerry's own tablet fortunes -- the PlayBook was a flop. The BlackBerry PlayBook "On the surface, Heins' statement seems to qualify as a classic case of spilled-milk whining by a guy whose company can't seem to fight its way out of a paper bag," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. "But consider the subject, tablets, from a slightly unconventional angle -- not as devices, so much as a new form of computational interaction," he suggested. "In that sense, the success of tablets isn't about a particular vendor or product, like Apple''s iPad, so much as it is about end users evolving and becoming ready for increasingly mobile and unencumbered access to information," King added. Market in Motion Heins' statement could end up being prophetic in that the market will certainly change. Just five years ago, few could likely foresee that the tablet would become as popular as it is today. Evolution won't stand still for the next five years either. "Remember the tiny laptops from a few years ago?" asked telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan. "They were a flash in the pan," he said. "Tablets are real -- but they are still brand new," Kagan told TechNewsWorld. "The marketplace of tomorrow will have tablets and laptops and smartphones. They will all grow, and they will be tied together on the same service plan, and they will all access your data stored in the cloud," he noted. "So will tablets be gone? No. But they will stop eating up laptop market share at some point," Kagan maintained. Refined Devices It is very possible that the tablet could overlap with the smartphone or with the traditional laptop. Some makers have introduced convertible devices that are both tablet and PC, and users are able to add keyboards and other perhiperals to many tablet models. "The usage is still evolving, especially for those who grew up in the traditional computer model with keyboard and mouse," added iSuppli's Alexander. "There is danger in dating oneself in not seeing that there will be a transition in how work gets done," she told TechNewsWorld. Circling back to Heins' statement about the business model, he could have meant that he didn't see a place for tablets in business environments. "Define 'business,'" said Alexander. "Are you talking about an executive sitting at his desk? Or in retail at point of sale? Or in a warehouse to track inventory? There are all kinds of environments in business, and it is a big category." Never Say Never It appears highly unlikely that BlackBerry will get back into the tablet arena any time soon, but it is worth noting that even Apple -- the company that largely created the media tablet market -- was determined to stick to a very specific form factor. Under Steve Jobs, the tablet was designed as a device with a 4x3 aspect ratio (1.33:1), replicating the dimensions of a magazine. This was largely in contrast to the 16x10 aspect ratio of many laptop computer screens, which were in line with the 16x9 aspect ratio of HDTV screens. Jobs also was against smaller tablets that Apple's rivals introduced. "We've already seen one major departure from conventional tablet market wisdom in the past 12 months -- the remarkable success of 7-inch devices like the Nexus 7," Pund-IT's King told TechNewsWorld. Apple attempted to quickly follow Google's lead, "despite the fact that the late Steve Jobs said the company would never build a smaller iPad," King pointed out. "That suggests to me that the tablets -- both the technology and the marketplace -- are evolving more quickly and unexpectedly than many people believe, to the point that in five years' time, things may be far different than most expect," he said. "If that's the point Heins was trying to make," King added, "he could very well be correct."

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TechNewsWorld: CAST's Marc Jones: For Fed's Open Source, It's Trust and Verify

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CAST's Marc Jones: For Fed's Open Source, It's Trust and Verify Apr 30th 2013, 12:00 "Open source certainly is not going away. It is becoming a part of the infrastructure. Whether the open source code comes from a purely independent community or a federal integrator, open source should not get a free pass on verifying that it meets fundamental tests of mission or business worthiness," said CAST Software CEO Marc Jones. "And conversely, the open source community should not feel threatened by that." CAST Software is a software analysis and measurement firm that uses an automated approach to capture and quantify the reliability, security, complexity and size of business applications. A main company objective is increasing software assurance around reliability and security of applications delivered to the U.S. government. Marc Jones participates in a recent panel presentation at OSSI. (Photo: John Farrell) Part of its drive for better software assurance utilizes fact-based transparency into application development, sustainment and sourcing. This enables program management and acquisition leaders to drive down its sustainment cost and risk. Among its client base is Army PEO-EIS, Air Force, SPAWAR, Military Health, and the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services, along with other defense, intelligence and civilian organizations. As governments and businesses adopt open source software with increasing regularity, CAST applies the same analysis and measurement standards for assessing open source and proprietary software with its arsenal of commercial and open source tools. CAST is a commercial for-profit software company with a propriety IP. In this exclusive interview, LinuxInsider talks to Marc Jones, national federal practice director for CAST, about the process of certifying the fitness of proprietary, commercial and community-sponsored open source software. LinuxInsider: How is what CAST provides to software users different from other software testing procedures? Marc Jones: The firm is very focused on the requirements for software analysis and measurement. We work with a number of large entities involving the private and public sectors, as well as the integrated community. We enable them to evaluate and monitor risk in a variety of ways in the delivery of their software applications. As a software company, we have applications that look at source and evaluate it for a variety of risks. For instance, we look at cost of ownership, maintenance and sustainment, transition risk around vendor changes, or employee changes. We look at short-term risks around security, performance and reliability. LI: How much of this software assessment involves open source? Jones: We also work on open source applications that clients use. Depending on whom you speak to in the open source world or IT community, open source has a different context. In our sector, we deal primarily with the IT organization fielding mission or business systems. I deal primarily with government IT, whether it is DoD (Department of Defense) or the civilian sector. LI: How active are military and government in using open source? Jones: When we talk to folks in IT, they are users of open source in the delivery of their own solutions in many cases. Their vendors deliver to them products that often has open source stuff within it -- for instance, all the major Java frameworks and a variety of all the other things that are out there. Over the course of the last few years, we see government from a functional economic perspective starting to seek open source business solutions. This includes CRM. And in the health care organizations, we are starting to see interconnects that link various health care records and provider systems and things of that nature. So the federal government has become very dependent on open source products. LI: Are there different procedures involving how open source is treated compared to commercial or proprietary software? Jones: What is interesting to me in that context is the open source product is often not treated the same way as custom commercial code is in the sense that because it is open source, it is kind of dropped in. And in many cases it does not go through the same quality assurance and testing rigor that you might have with a software development process that is generating 100 percent new code. LI: That view surprises me. I am always told by open source proponents that community code is more rigorously reviewed for quality and security. Is what you are saying disputing that claim? Jones: When you talk about security with open source, it really comes down to controlling your supply chain. It is not until that application is under your full control -- and it does not matter what the platform may be -- and that code is in the configuration management system of the entity that is using it, that software is under any real control. From our perspective, we are seeing a lot in the DoD assurance community that code is code, and everything needs to be verified. Just because that code happens to come from an open source website that has a community looking at it does not imply that by the time that code gets into your system it is reliable, resilient, etc. That open source code needs to be treated with the same rigor that you are starting to see custom applications assessed. Let me make another point. Often the fallacy is that these open source projects stand alone. But they don't. They are integrated with other things. For instance, take that health care interchange solution I was describing. You do not even know how secure it is until you start linking it to all of the different data feeds and sources that would be a deployed system. That is what would need to be verified ultimately. LI: So are you saying that just open source is lacking in security verification? Jones: I am saying that open source is not necessarily being dealt the same rigor, I think, that a custom code being dropped into a solution from supplier X might be. LI: Is that kind of situation you describe a detriment to open source, and does it cause businesses to shy away from using open source because it does not measure up to commercial products in testing? Jones: I wouldn't say that. I think that there are positive aspects to open source. We did some work with a military health component where they actually ran our solution on open source products and fed those results back to the open source community, and saw big improvement in the open source product. So the community is responsive, I think, to feedback to drive quality if it is an active community, of course. LI: At what point can an open source user feel confident that the community backing a particular project has a quality product? But that being said, I think the larger comment is that sometimes new changes occur that create the perception of a panacea. The idea may be that because of the big community, somebody has already done that work for you. Ultimately, it is the business which is adopting that system that incurs the risk, not the open source development community. That business has to manage the risk as if they were developing their own custom software. When you think in terms of someone buying a packaged application, that is a very big contract with lots of liability language in there. To put some heat on the supplier from the perspective of risk sharing, you may not see that at the same level in a number of the open source products. LI: When CAST performs code testing, does the process randomly check applications and issue reports, or is the testing the result of a client's request? Jones: We look at system-level risk. So from our customer's perspective, just looking at an open source application and just issuing a report on it does not mean very much. Having an open source product sitting on the community's server saying it has been validated does not really mean very much. They want to see how it looks after it has been adapted and perhaps modified or extended in their own environment with the other elements it is linking to. So at CAST one of our competencies is being able to run an analysis all the way from a data component to a mobile system, and everything in between. In that in between or at that mobile system or at that database level such as Postgres or something, we would look at all the code, not really identifying whether or not it was open source but looking at the risk of that whole system. LI: Given your view that the risk in the open source communities varies, what needs to be done to make open source products more compliant or equal to proprietary and commercial products? Jones: Buyers should make no assumptions either way, and apply their own due diligence and take responsibility for verifying what they are getting, and what they are putting into their environment is compliant with best practices. The only way you can assure that is to run the analyses yourself. You can not rely on a third party to self-assess and just give you the code that you take sight unseen. It is a trust and verify aspect. LI: With the DoD getting more involved with using open source, how effective is that becoming in lowering IT costs? Jones: There are a lot of different categories of open source. There are many open source tools that the government can bring in to assist development. There are plugs-ins for Java and .NET and things of that nature that are open source products the government can download and use to make their own code better when they are writing it. They can use open source frameworks so they do not have to write their own -- Hibernate, Spring, etc. These are all outstanding time savers. And the government leverages them like crazy. As you go up the chain of functionality, I think you see the government is consuming a ton of open source and is looking a lot more at leveraging the functional business applications in a big way. LI: So just as a business enterprise would, how do government agencies test and verify open source software assurance? Jones: We have been a big part of, on behalf of government, that process. They have used our system to review that source code. Code is code at the end of the day. So running an open source product or an integrated source with custom code is no different technically than anything else. I think it is with that kind of assurance you are starting to see more confidence in leveraging open source to take advantage of some of the cost benefits there. LI: Can you give some examples of how the government is using open source projects rather than more expensive proprietary or commercial software? Jones: Look at NOAA (National Weather Service), for instance, to see the open source database is Python and all kinds of stuff. They are hardly unique in that use. Even at CAST, we make use of open source to extend functionality. Open source certainly is not going away. It is becoming more and more a part of the infrastructure. I think one takeaway is that ultimately, regardless of whether the open source code comes from a purely independent community or a federal integrator, open source should not get a free pass on verifying that it meets fundamental tests of mission or business worthiness. And conversely, the open source community should not feel threatened by that. LI: So you do not see any shortcomings to open source in terms of security issues compared to commercial or proprietary alternatives? Jones: If clients are feeding information back to the community to make that product better, more resilient and stronger, then all the stakeholders benefit from it. That transparency itself is very very interesting. But it does not guarantee you reliability or secure software. That still needs to be validated and verified as those systems get integrated, customized, enhanced and configured in the specific environments in which they are going to be deployed. There is no short cut. Jack M. Germain has been writing about computer technology since the early days of the Apple II and the PC. He still has his original IBM PC-Jr and a few other legacy DOS and Windows boxes. He left shareware programs behind for the open source world of the Linux desktop. He runs several versions of Windows and Linux OSes and often cannot decide whether to grab his tablet, netbook or Android smartphone instead of using his desktop or laptop gear.

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TechNewsWorld: CallNote Dials Up Clean, Easy Skype Recordings

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CallNote Dials Up Clean, Easy Skype Recordings Apr 30th 2013, 12:00 By John P. Mello Jr. MacNewsWorld Part of the ECT News Network 04/30/13 5:00 AM PT There's no more need to settle for unintelligible, muddy-sounding phone recordings. Digital now rules over analog, and Skype is the preferred communications tool for many who use their computers for audio and video calls. For those who need business or personal recordings, CallNote provides an easy-to-use way to capture clear audio or video Skype calls on a Mac. CallNote is available for Macs from Kanda Software in both free and premium (US$19.99) versions. Recording phone calls has always been a gray area of the law. That's because there are both state and federal wiretapping laws that govern the practice. Federal law allows a conversation to be recorded if one party consents to it. Some states use that rule, too, but others require the consent of everyone on the call. Nevertheless, those uncertainties haven't deterred people from recording phone calls or kept Radio Shack from making analog devices to enable those recordings. Remember suction cup microphones? How about those little black boxes with modular inputs? Not only could those devices be annoying to operate -- suction cup mics losing their suction, and conversations entering the black box sometimes disappeared -- but their audio quality could be wildly inconsistent. We're not talking broadcast quality here. We're talking intelligibility. Ah, the glory of digital recording. With Microsoft's Skype and a nifty little program called CallNote, the uncertainties of analog phone recording can be put in the dustbin of obsolete tech. Easy Installation CallNote, made by Kanda Software, comes in two editions. The free version records phone calls made through Skype. There's also a premium version for US$19.95 that records video calls and Skype chats. CallNote is easy to setup. You should launch Skype before you run CallNote. Otherwise, the call recorder will tell you that it can't find Skype and put a crimp in your setup. After installing CallNote, when you go to the call recording section of the program for the first time, it will try to connect to Skype. Skype will then issue a warning to you: Do you want CallNote to access Skype? Approve access and you're good to go. When you make a voice call with Skype, you can record it with CallNote either manually or automatically. Auto Recording Manual recording requires that you keep CallNote open on your desktop. As your call is connecting in Skype, you need to click on the CallNote window, then click on record. You can also configure CallNote to record a call as soon as it starts in Skype. That method removes a lot of the rigamarole involved in recording the calls manually. Also from the recording window, you can choose to have CallNote automatically notify call participants that the call is being recorded. In addition, there are options for recording chat messages and video calls in the recording window. Those options are disabled in the free version of CallNote. Recorded calls are stored in the CallNote library. They appear in a table format. Columns are Date and Time, Participants, Duration, Edit, Play, Snaps and Forward. Add A Note The Date and Time column can be sorted in ascending or descending order with the click of an arrow. When your cursor hovers over the icon in the Participants column, a bubble will appear displaying information about the participants in the call, while the length of the call is displayed in the Duration column. Clicking the Edit icon in a recording entry pops up a window containing information about the call. In the window you can change the name of the recording and give it a subject. You can also add notes about the call. Date, time, participant and duration information are automatically recorded in the note field. Text in notes can be styled with a number of tools. Tools on the style bar include bold, italic, underline and strikethrough; subscript and superscripts; font, font size and color; paragraph styles; highlight text; remove formatting; bullet and number lists; indent and outdent paragraphs; and align text -- left, right, centered and justified. You can play the recording from the note, as well as from the Play column in the library entry. When you choose to play the recording, CallNote sends it to iTunes. That can be annoying if you'd rather not have phone call recordings saved with your music. Evernote and Dropbox Support Photos captured from video sessions will be noted in the Snaps column. CallNote also gives you a nice array of places where you forward your recordings without leaving the program. You can send them to Facebook or YouTube, stash them in DropBox or attach them to an email. You can also send them to Evernote. Evernote is a popular notebook program. One reason it's so popular is you can use it on almost any platform -- desktop, laptop or mobile -- which makes it easy to share information among applications on those platforms. That means a phone call recorded on a MacBook can be pulled into a Windows machine and archived later in Amazon Cloud. Recordings are MP3 files, so they can be played on any device as well. After recording a phone call, you may want to transcribe it. NCH Software makes an excellent free program called ExpressScribe that fits the bill perfectly. The MP3 recordings of your phone call can be simply dragged into the app for transcription. With Skype and CallNote, the bad old days of recording analog phone calls will become a distant memory -- one you'll be glad to forget. John Mello is a freelance technology writer and former special correspondent for Government Security News.

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TechNewsWorld: Digging Into Garden Planning Software

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Digging Into Garden Planning Software Apr 30th 2013, 12:00 Gardeners wanting to plan before they plant are making use of advances in garden planning technologies. Apps and websites take some of the risk out of designing and building large and small gardens. There's plenty of reward, too, when it comes to websites that help teach kids and gardening newbies the basics of harvesting healthy food. When Catherine Kasper Place in Fort Wayne, Ind., needed to help refugees plan garden plots for themselves and for the organization's community suppored agriculture, it turned to GrowVeg.com's Garden Planner and its affiliated iPad app, Garden Plan Pro. GrowVeg.com's Garden Planner (click to enlarge) "It's challenging just to manage one garden," Holly Chaille, Catherine Kasper Place's director, told TechNewsworld. "This is 36 different ones, with 36 different designs. When you're managing all of that, to have it organized and catalogued makes it easier." Interactive Growth Garden Planner is a subscription-based service for planning and managing gardens. Garden Plan Pro (iOS, US$9.99) is a stand-alone garden planning app that doesn't require a subscription to use, but can be synced with Garden Planner accounts. "It makes a lot of sense, saves time, and makes gardening more productive," Jeremy Dore, managing director of the company behind these services, Growing Interactive, told TechNewsWorld. "As you add plants, it shows you how much room you need. It calculates how many plants will fit into a given area, and it tells you how many seeds you need to start indoors." It also facilitates crop rotation, which can increase production. "It automates crop rotation," explained Dore. "Crop rotation used to be a real headache for people. You have to remember what plants you've planted and what family they're in. We have a color-coded system that tells you where not to put certain plants, based on what was there in previous years, in order to avoid pests." Catherine Kasper Place's Fresh Food Initiative helps local refugees -- who are primarily from Burma at the moment -- chart out garden plots that include their native vegetables, such as bitter gourd, taro, Thai peppers and watercress. It also helps them to plan and manage plots of vegetables sold through the CSA. "This was the only system in which we could build many different designs," said Chaille. "Most of these apps are built for a person with one farm. Very few have options for more than one farm, and none with as many." Pictures and a simple, intuitive interface help gardeners plan what to plant and how much to plant, and then manage the garden throughout the season. "Not a lot of our clients are literate in English," said Chaille. "The program is picture-based, and it makes it easier to work together when we all have a common idea of what a carrot is." The site and app offer a variety of options for planning and organization. "We chose to use the square foot gardening option, and we're hoping to produce more than what a row crop would," said Chaille. "It will produce more produce in less space." The goal is to help both the refugees and the community by providing an abundance of healthy food. "It's fresh, local food, which is very meaningful," said Chaille. "A lot of our clients live in food desert areas that keep them from getting to grocery stores. They're hard-pressed to find the kinds of vegetables that they want to eat. This allows them food equity, since the farm is right across the street where many of our clients live. And it benefits the whole community." Planning to Succeed Another organization, the Recipe for Success Foundation, works with schools to plan and plant gardens that are used to teach children about everything from gardening to healthy eating. The foundation encourages its affiliate partners and schools to use Garden Planner and Garden Plan Pro to plan and manage their gardens. "It's a very easy design tool to use," Gracie Cavnar, founder of the Recipe for Success Foundation, told TechNewsWorld. "The beauty of this is that you can do it pretty quickly with the embedded tools. For us, as an organization that builds a lot of gardens, it's cut our prep time down dramatically." These new garden planning technologies, she said, are making the school gardening projects more effective and educational. "The biggest thing that this technology has done for us is reduce the cost of delivering our program," said Cavnar. "[Growing Interactive is] beginning to incorporate lesson plans into the program, so that teachers can more readily use it in the classroom." Ultimately, garden planning sites and apps give gardeners access to a wealth of information that might otherwise be difficult to track down. "It's not for everybody, since some people want just paper and dirt," said Dore. "But many people want an app. There's probably a mobile device with you when you're in the garden, so you might as well use it." Freelance writer Vivian Wagner has wide-ranging interests, from technology and business to music and motorcycles. She writes features regularly for ECT News Network, and her work has also appeared in American Profile, Bluegrass Unlimited, and many other publications. For more about her, visit her website.

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TechNewsWorld: Samsung Throws Galaxy Tab 3 Into Mini Tablet Mix

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Samsung Throws Galaxy Tab 3 Into Mini Tablet Mix Apr 29th 2013, 22:03 It won't be heading to the U.S. anytime soon, but Samsung now has another entry in the 7-inch tablet computer sweepstakes with the Galaxy Tab 3. Like other so-called "phablets," the Tab 3 has calling capabilities, but not much more in the way of tech specifications than its Tab 2 predecessor. That could mean an aggressive price point to take on the low end of the market. Samsung on Monday announced the Galaxy Tab 3 7-inch mini tablet. The device will come with 8 or 16 MB of internal storage and up to 64 MB of expandable memory. A WiFi-only version of the Galaxy Tab 3 will be available worldwide in May, and a 3G version will be launched in June. Product availability will vary by market in a gradual rollout. "This announcement is for the global version of the Galaxy Tab 3," Samsung representative Makenzie Blythe told TechNewsWorld. "There have been no announcements for U.S. availability for the Galaxy Tab 3." The Tab 3's Specs The Galaxy Tab 3 will have a 7-inch 1024 x 600 thin-film transistor (TFT) screen with 169 pixel per inch resolution. It will have a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and run Android 4.1, or Jelly Bean. The device will have a 3 MP rear camera and a 1.3 MP front camera. It will offer 1080p full HD video playback at 30 fps. The Galaxy Tab 3 will come preloaded with Samsung Hub, Samsung Kies, the Samsung ChatON mobile communication service, and various Google Mobile services including Search, Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps and Google Now. It will support Bluetooth 3.0 and WiFi. The WiFi version will be equipped with an accelerometer, a geomagnetic sensor and a light sensor, while the 3G version will have all these as well as a proximity sensor. Both will support A-GPS + Glonass. The Galaxy Tab 3 will have a microSD slot that can handle up to a 64 GB card. Pricing has not been announced. Reactions to the Tab 3 The Galaxy Tab 3's specs have drawn fire from some observers. In general, they point out that it differs very little from the Tab 2 apart from being more compact. The Tab 3 is a little smaller, has a 1.2 GHz processor instead of the Tab 2's 1 GHz processor and has a slightly narrower bezel. It is 40 gm lighter than the Tab 2, will support twice as much expandable memory via its microSD card slot, and will run on Android 4.1 instead of 4.0. Both the Tab 3 and the Tab 2, however, have essentially the same preloaded apps, and both come in WiFi and 3G versions. "The main value proposition for the Galaxy Tab 3 is that it's lighter and slimmer," Julien Blin, a directing analyst at Infonetics, told TechNewsWorld. "If Samsung prices this tablet close to the Nexus 7's US$199, that will be its key selling point." The Galaxy Tab 3 "is not boring as it will have the latest version of Android and will come with Google Now, which was one of the key selling points for the Nexus 7 because it brings the user experience to a new level," Blin said. Calling capabilities on a tablet "has been done in Europe for a while, where many tablets offer [this feature]," he noted. This feature "could become quite handy for people who own multiple devices because if you add call forwarding capabilities, people can call you on your smartphone first then the call could go to your tablet." Samsung's Possible Direction It's possible that Samsung might be targeting the lower end of the market with the Galaxy Tab 3. "Given that many OEMs are moving to the low end of the tablet market, and given the success of the Nexus 7, a quad-core tablet that sells for $199, you should expect Samsung to price the Galaxy Tab 3 aggressively," Blin said. Samsung will likely become more aggressive in the tablet space this year as it's "one of the few tablet makers who can actually compete with Apple, Amazon and Google/Asus's Nexus 7," he noted. "They can leverage their strong brand, effective marketing campaigns, and strong hardware ecosystem." Samsung will also get better in terms of its services ecosystem, Blin added, which "will help strengthen and improve the stickiness of its tablet offering."

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TechNewsWorld: Microsoft's IllumiRoom Blends Gaming, Real-World Environments

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Microsoft's IllumiRoom Blends Gaming, Real-World Environments Apr 29th 2013, 20:31 Microsoft's IllumiRoom employs a Kinect for Windows camera and a projector to let on-screen content bleed into the gamer's physical environment. It can change the appearance of a room, provide the sensation of motion, and extend the player's field of view. Kinect captures the appearance and geometry of a room to adapt projected visuals in real-time -- no graphics preprocessing required. While Microsoft isn't taking the wraps off its upcoming next-generation video game console until next month, it did cast a little more illumination on its IllumiRoom projection system on Monday. Projecting wider field-of-view content around the television increases immersion. The system, which is the subject of a research paper to be presented at this week's Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Paris, has been described as a proof-of-concept technology that augments the area surrounding a television. Among other things, it can project visualizations that are meant to enhance the traditional gaming experience. "IllumiRoom seems like a potentially disruptive game technology, but when Kinect was in beta and demo stages, it also appeared to have the potential to change the gaming experience," said independent video game analyst Billy Pidgeon. "At this point, the room overlay projection tech is probably most effective in generating interest with developers." Microsoft declined to provide further details. Game Projections The IllumiRoom is not the first technology to attempt to create a more immersing experience, but the jury is still out as to whether most gamers will embrace this type of system in the home. "These are peripherals. These aren't likely going to be at the center of the interactive experience," said video game consultant N'Gai Croal of Hit Detection. "This is a bit like a home theater; you either have the space or don't, but that's mean you can't watch movies." The current design may not lend itself to gamers taking full advantage of it in the home. "Microsoft has showed an example of the device sitting on a coffee table in front of the TV set, or mounted from the ceiling. Very few people have a ceiling mounted device, and even with a coffee table projection system it would need to be tucked under the table and out of the way," said Lewis Ward, research manager for gaming at IDC. "In a practical setting, without the perfect viewing conditions, it could limit the niche -- and this in turn limits the practical application of such a device." Peripheral Vision It is likely that Microsoft could help build support for such technology by incorporating it into its first-party software titles for its upcoming video game system. "Microsoft is likely working on internal uses, but new gaming technology won't catch on unless it can help external developers create unusual gameplay with competitive commercial value," added Pidgeon. "We've seen a number of vendors and publishers launch new tech promising to provide innovative game control and display technologies in recent years, and the user experience delivered has come up short of the hyped promise," he pointed out. "We'll continue to see interesting new control-and-display tech, but vendors should be savvy enough to keep expectations low," Pidgeon told TechNewsWorld. IllumiRoom may have to get past the chicken-and-egg problem before it has a chance of taking off. "It has that wow factor, but it is going to have to be something that Microsoft supports internally," said IDC's Ward. "Game developers and publishers aren't going to spend the money to develop for it until it has a large install base." In turn game buyers won't buy it until there is a game library for it. "We could be looking at something that could approach US$1,000 at retail," said Ward. "Even if Microsoft added the technology to all first-party games, it wouldn't have enough of a base for third-party developers to sign on en masse." Commercial Appeal Such a device could have potential in commercial applications and could certainly be a hit at special events. "For commercial purposes such as trade shows -- vendors or electronics companies who want to do cool visuals around a PowerPoint presentation -- this could work quite well," Ward told TechNewsWorld. Future Proof Although Microsoft is presenting IllumiRoom in a living room setting, it may be that the technology will find greater acceptance outside the home. "You can't envision everything in a lab, and this is a start to where it could go," added Croal. "We're going to see things that come out after this. Microsoft's implementation might be through a console, but there is no reason this couldn't be used with a PC down the road -- or couldn't be used with a tablet or a smartphone at the center of the infrastructure. The key components are motion sensor, the projector and the TV," he noted. "This could lead to an abstract that could evolve and work with other sources of imagery, as long as the CPU horsepower is there," Croal suggested. "In the future, there is going to be a lot more onboard CPU power in the TV itself and the camera/projector," he pointed out. "Until we get to the holodeck, people are going to experiment with technology that can simulate and emulate virtual experiences."

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Just Another Mobile Phone Blog: Samsung to bring the Tab DUOS, Tab 8.0 AMOLED, Tab 11 Super PLS TFT and NEXUS 11

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Samsung to bring the Tab DUOS, Tab 8.0 AMOLED, Tab 11 Super PLS TFT and NEXUS 11 Apr 29th 2013, 19:34 This weekend SamMobile received Samsung's tablet plans for 2013. Samsung wants to bring more tablets for every segment. Samsung want to bring a dual-sim tablet and that maybe sound strange but not unreal. Lenovo has made such a tablet before. Inside the list below you wont find the Galaxy Tab 3. Cause this list is only for this years special tablets from Samsung. As you will notice Google And Samsung are busy with the NEXUS 11 and this has to be the first octa-core tablet from Samsung and Google. Samsung is also busy to create an own high-end 11" tablet plus a follow-up on their AMOLED line-up. Samsung delayed or might even cancel the next generation of Galaxy Note 10.1 cause of the weak sales of this tablet. The specifications of the Galaxy Tab 3 are around the same level as the Galaxy Tab DUOS. Samsung Galaxy Tab DUOS 7.0 - 7.0" PLS LCD 600 x 1024 - 3 Megapixel (back) - 2 Megapixel (front) - Dual-core - DUAL SIM - Micro SD 32 GB Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.0 - 8.0" AMOLED 1080p - 5 Megapixel - 2 Megapixel - Quad-core A9 (Exynos 4412) - Micro SD 64 GB * Samsung need to solve AMOLED burning problem first. Samsung Galaxy Tab 11 - 11" Super PLS TFT - 8 Megapixel - 2 Megapixel - Dual-Core A15 (Exynos 5250) - Micro SD 64 GB NEXUS 11* - 11" Super PLS TFT - 8 Megapixel - 2 Megapixel - Octa-Core A15 / A7 (Exynos 5410) - Micro SD 64 GB (Rumoured) * Needs to get approvement from Google (Worlds first Octa-Core tablet) http://www.sammobile.com

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Just Another Mobile Phone Blog: Rumored Note III protoype is ZOPO ZP950, Samsung has 3 protypes of the Note III

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Rumored Note III protoype is ZOPO ZP950, Samsung has 3 protypes of the Note III Apr 29th 2013, 19:34 Yesterday we posted a rumor about the Galaxy Note III. Thanks to a comment in our post we found out that the Galaxy Note III picture was actually fake. The picture of the device is the ZOPO ZP950. Some huge phablet, with mid-range specifications… At the same moment SamMobile received a update mail regarding this picture. The insider confirmed for this isn't even a prototype. According to our insider Samsung does have 3 good protypes of the Galaxy Note III. One with the design of the Galaxy S4 which isn't good news for us. One with a completly different design, which sounds better. And the final one, a flexible display design of the Galaxy Note III. Sadly Samsung isn't sure to use it cause of flexible display problems. Let's hope Samsung could solve the problem and use the flexible display design as LG wants to bring their own smartphone at the end of the year with such a display. http://www.sammobile.com

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Just Another Mobile Phone Blog: Samsung Galaxy S4 Korean (SHV-E300S) official firmware is now available

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Korean (SHV-E300S) official firmware is now available Apr 29th 2013, 19:33 Samsung has just started to push Galaxy S4 (SHV-E300S) firmware to the KIES server as the device is soon going to be launched in various countries. Samsung always releases the firmware before the device itself and it's the same case with the Galaxy S4 Korean, as well. The firmware is based on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with Samsung's Nature UX 2.0 running on top of it. Currently, Samsung has only released the firmware for China, we hope other countries to follow soon. Firmware Details: Android Version: 4.2.2 – Build JDQ39 PDA: E300SKSUAMDK CSC: E300SSKTAMDK The Galaxy S4 Korean (SHV-E300S) firmware is available for download from our Firmware Section. Now as the official firmware have been released, it's going to rain custom ROMs and custom kernels for the Galaxy S4 Korean (SHV-E300S). http://www.sammobile.com

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Just Another Mobile Phone Blog: Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 announced

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 announced Apr 29th 2013, 19:35 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, today announced the introduction of the GALAXY Tab 3 – 7-inch tablet featuring sleek design and enhanced capabilities that bring capabilities that bring better performance and multimedia experiences to your fingertips. With the new GALAXY Tab 3, Samsung has evolved its range of innovative tablets, making them smaller and easier to carry, while increasing the user experience overall • Easy Handgrip and Portability: Its compact, one-hand grip form factor ensures users can hold comfortably for hours as well as store in a pocket or small bag for reading and entertainment on the go. The sleek and stylish design encompasses thinner bezel than the previous GALAXY Tab 2 (7.0). • Better Multimedia Performance: Powered by a 1.2GHz Dual Core processor, the device allows for faster downloads and sharing, while providing easy access to videos, apps, games, and the web. Offered with either 8/16 of internal storage plus up to 64GB of expandable memory, the device has plenty of space to hold your favorite photos, music, apps, videos and more. • Enhanced User Experience: The GALAXY Tab 3 7-inch is equipped to better capture life's moments in stunning clarity and resolution with its 3-megapixel camera rear camera and 1.3 -megapixel front camera. Combined with the latest Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), it allows users to share photos, videos, and life's special moments through a few quick taps and swipes. The GALAXY Tab 3 7-inch WiFi version will be available globally beginning May and 3G version will follow in June. The product availability varies by market and will be rolled out gradually. http://www.sammobile.com

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Just Another Mobile Phone Blog: Galaxy S4 Design Video: Contradictory Nonsense?

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Galaxy S4 Design Video: Contradictory Nonsense? Apr 29th 2013, 19:37 Samsung Tomorrow just released this short about the Galaxy S4 design story. It's looks very nice – we are treated some lovely time-lapse videos, some flattering shots of people looking at phones and what might look like an insight into Samsung's product design choices. The only thing is, once you look past all the distracting time-lapses and jargon… it's just a video full of juxtaposed conflicted opinions. The more attention you pay, the more ridiculous it gets!     The design is "Not a radical difference, but more of an evolution" says product designer Hyoungshin Park in the first five seconds of the video. Immediately afterwards, we are rhetorically told by designer JongBo Jung (another product designer) that the Galaxy S4 is "Like nothing you've ever seen before". At least for the Galaxy S3 "Inspired by nature" launch they went all out on the nature thing, talking endlessly and tautologically about flowing water, pebbles and blades of grass bending in the wind… I mean, at least they were consistent! In the Galaxy S4 video, we are told in no uncertain terms by Hyoungshin that, whereas the Galaxy S3 was inspired by nature, the Galaxy S4 "Form factor was designed with a more rational approach" (does that mean that the Galaxy S3 design was irrational?!) and the "CMF [colour, material and finish] was created with more emotional elements in mind". Then JongBo tells us how they were inspired by nature for the "Black Mist" finish – wanting it to look like "countless stars sparkling in the night sky" or "a precious stone glittering in the sky". Perhaps it also looks like a disco-ball? Or a block of flats at night? Or… I don't know… a black piece of paper with holes in it? How far can you go!? We have a picture of a device's design which is not simultaneously an evolution of a previous design, whilst simultaneously being something we've never seen before… something which was both inspired, and not inspired by nature and is more of a rational design than the Galaxy S3. Don't get me wrong – I think the design of the Galaxy S4 is good. Everyone has their own opinion, but it's hard to call the Galaxy S4 an ugly device. I can't help but think, however, that it would be more interesting to see some of Samsung's actual design processes rather than pumped up, quasi-inspirational and elusively contradictory nonsense.

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Just Another Mobile Phone Blog: Samsung posts a video explaining Galaxy S4′s design

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Samsung posts a video explaining Galaxy S4′s design Apr 29th 2013, 19:36 Today, Samsung posted a video explaining the inspirations behind the Galaxy S4′s design. After the unveiling of the Galaxy S4, many people started to say that the design of the Galaxy S4 is more of an evolution than a revolution and Samsung does agree on that. Samsung did a lot of research and development on the Galaxy S3′s design, which made the Galaxy S3 Samsung's biggest selling device with over 50 million units sold worldwide, and Samsung wanted to "perfect" their already well established design for their latest flagship device, the Galaxy S4. If you want to read our Column writer's take on the video visit this link. http://www.sammobile.com/

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